New MacBook Pro with M3 chips: a real beast, and now more affordable

In an atypical event both in format and schedule, Apple officially unveiled the new generation MacBook Pro, the most advanced laptop from the American company. As expected, this also applies to the new M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max processors, which represent a significant leap in terms of power.

These new chips use TSMC 3 nanometer manufacturing processWhat allow the development of more energy-efficient chips and, moreover, more capable. This, combined with the usual architecture evolution that Apple introduces with each SoC generation, results in a noticeable leap over the previous generation – the M2 – both in terms of consumption and raw power.

M3 chips are the star of the show

The first thing that stands out about the new generation MacBook Pro is that can be configured using M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. On the other hand, the previous version could only be purchased with the M2 Pro and Max versions of the chips.

This solution has two advantages:

• Firstly, this significantly simplifies the range, since the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the previous design, the presence of which in the brand’s catalog has long been meaningless, disappears.
• Secondly, you can now enjoy the new design and miniLED screen, among other features, at a lower price.

M3 family unveils new GPU design, which the company says represents the biggest advance in graphics architecture in the history of Apple Silicon chips. Among the new features of this new component is a dynamic caching feature that promises to significantly improve GPU memory utilization. The new graphics also include Mesh Shading and hardware accelerated ray tracing.

M3, which comes with the MacBook Pro, too welcome new processor design which promises a noticeable jump in performance. Specifically, the high-performance cores are 30% more powerful than those found in the M2, and the high-performance cores are improved by 15%. And all this, according to the company, without sacrificing superior performance per watt. That is, the high energy efficiency of previous generations is maintained.

Generally, Both the standard M3’s CPU and GPU promise to match the base M1’s peak performance while consuming half the power.. The comparison becomes even more in favor of the new chip when compared to a well-known Intel chip: the Core i7-1360P. In this case, M3 manages to match its performance with 1/4 of the consumption in the case of the CPU and 1/5 of the consumption in the case of the GPU.

New M3 chips too They have a new Neural Engine for AI tasks., which is 15% more powerful than the M2 and, according to the company, is also more efficient. Compared to Neural Engine M1, the jump is 60%.

These elements complement the known Media engine, which speeds up work with H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW. This version also includes support for AV1 decoding, the codec used by services like YouTube or Netflix for their content. In practice, the latter means that MacBook Pros with this chip will consume less power when playing content on platforms that use this codec.

What is the difference between M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max?

The main difference between the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max that come with the new MacBook Pro is number of CPU and GPU cores. However, there are also differences in the maximum amount of memory supported by each chipset, ranging from 24GB to 128GB in the case of the Max model.

And how much better are these chips than previous generations? Here’s what Apple indicated during the presentation:

• The M3 processor is 35% and 20% faster than the M1 and M2 respectively. In the case of GPUs, the jump is 65% compared to M1 and 20% compared to M2.
• On the other hand, the M3 Pro’s CPU is 20% faster than the M1 Pro, and its GPU is 40% faster than the M1 Pro and 10% faster than the M2 Pro.
• In the case of the M3 Max, the processor is 80% faster than the M1 Max and 50% faster than the M2 Max. The GPU, in turn, has improved by 50% over the M1 Max and 20% over the M2 Max.

MacBook Pro, in addition to M3 chips

In addition to the new processors, the MacBook Pro There are almost no changes compared to the previous generation.. Only two details are noteworthy:

• The standard M3 model has two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, while the Pro or Max versions have three Thunderbolt 4 ports.
• The MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro or M3 Max chip can be purchased in two colors: silver and a new black model that Apple calls “space black.” But the model with a standard M3 chip can be purchased in silver and “space gray”. The difference between “space black” and “space gray” is that the former, as the name suggests, is darker.

Otherwise, the new generation of MacBook Pro retains the excellent miniLED display with Retina resolution, is available in two sizes (14 and 16 inches), has HDMI ports and an SD card reader, has recess At the top of the screen, battery life easily tops ten hours – and even 20 in some versions – it’s compatible with both Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E, has a Touch ID sensor, and can be charged via MagSafe and It. includes a 1080p webcam. All these features were also present in the previous generation.

New MacBook Pro with M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max: Pricing and Availability

New MacBook Pro with M3 and M3 Pro processors They will be available in Spain from November 7th., and the M3 Max variant will go on sale on the 16th of the same month. However, starting today, all of them can be reserved on the American company’s website.

It is currently not possible to reserve these devices in Mexico. There’s also no word on when they’ll be available in the country, so we’ll have to wait to find out more information.

Prices for the new MacBook Pro They vary depending on the processor model and the selected memory configuration. However, these are some reference prices:

• The cheapest option, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M3, starts at €2,029 in Spain and P34,999 in Mexico.
• MacBook Pro with M3 Pro chip starts at €2,549 for the 14-inch version and €3,049 for the 16-inch model. In Mexico we are talking about 44,999 pesos (14 inches) and 54,999 pesos (16 inches).
• MacBook Pro with M3 Max starts at €4,049 for the 14-inch version and €4,299 for the 16-inch version. In Mexico, prices are 74,999 pesos (14 inches) and 79,999 pesos (16 inches).
• The most expensive option, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max, which has the most cores and the most built-in and unified memory, costs €8,579 in Spain and P172,499 in Mexico.